Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (4 October 1822-17 January 1893) was President of the United States from 4 March 1877 to 4 March 1881, succeeding Ulysses S. Grant and preceding Grover Cleveland. A US Republican Party president who had served as Governor of Ohio from 1868 to 1872 and from 1876 to 1877, Hayes ended Reconstruction and laid the groundwork for 1880s and 1890s reforms during his single-term presidency.

Biography
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio on 4 October 1822, and he worked as an attorney in his home state. From 1858 to 1861, he served as city solicitor in Cincinnati, and he joined the US Army during the American Civil War. Hayes earned a reputation for bravery during the war, and he was wounded five times; he was promoted to Major-General at the end of the war. In 1865, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from Ohio's 2nd district, succeeding Alexander Long. In 1868, he was elected Governor of Ohio, succeeding Jacob Dolson Cox. He served two consecutive terms and then served a third term from 1876 to 1877. In 1876, Hayes ran for President of the United States as a member of the liberal US Republican Party, and he won the elction with 185 electoral votes to US Democratic Party candidate Samuel J. Tilden's 184, although he lost the popular vote by around 250,000 votes (3% less votes). The Democrats agreed to accept the election results in exchange for the withdrawal of US troops from the American South in 1877, ending Reconstruction. Hayes improved education during his presidency, put down a railroad workers' strike, implemented civil service reforms, began the assimilation of Native Americans, and defended the gold standard against bimetallism. He kept his pledge not to run for re-election, and he became a reformist activist. Hayes died in 1893 at the age of 70.